


Strikhedonia

by Antartique



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Awakening parents in Fates, Gen, really takumi-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 08:51:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18117440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antartique/pseuds/Antartique
Summary: Your brother and sister are commanders of the army, your younger sister has been chosen as a seer. What else to do, but to go away and become an stretegist?Or: Prince Takumi of Hoshido has never felt at home in the city of his birth, has always had the desire to travel and see the world. He is too young to go alone, so why not hand him over to people who travel a lot, so he will go with them?(Alternatively: Takumi goes to study in Izumo for a few years, and nothing is the same.)





	Strikhedonia

**Author's Note:**

> You know Takumi’s ending is basically, he leaves to help Hoshido while traveling? Yeah, it is that, except all the traveling is off screen because I wanted to focus on his personal growth. Also, Awakening parents.
> 
> Also Takumi no-res-no-magic has a magic bow, how can anyone not see how weird this is

The realization comes to his head like a lightning strike the day Sakura leaves their home, waving her farewells at Takumi and the others from the carriage’s window with a happy smile. 

It is eventful. Beautiful and solemn. The carriage raises slow and steady, the woman at front keeping the lightweight magic that eases the job of the  _kinshi_ , and within minutes it is a small silvery spot in the distance, heading towards the temple.

Sakura’s retainers are crying next to the royal family, loud and unsightly wailing, while Yukimura is a statue with lost eyes and trembling hands. Mother is subtly wiping her tears next to Takumi, who holds her hand, and Azura is clearly holding back tears while telling her it is all going to be okay. Ryouma is at the other side, standing straight and proud with the official robes he can finally wear, and Hinoka stands a little behind him, sobbing into her sleeves. The ninjas are nowhere to be seen, but Hinoka’s own retainers try to make her laugh with their usual antics.

Shirasagi temple’s priests are behind the royal family, muttering to each other, but they don’t stay around for much, deciding to head back to their duties as soon as possible. They are busy, fixing people and arranging festivals, sending prayers and dancing rituals; they are busy doing what Sakura will soon learn to do as well.

Sakura is eleven.

Eleven, and Chosen by the Head Priestess herself. She left with few of her possessions, her room staying much the same as it had always been. She is going into training to be the next seer in charge of the  _ Hanakigami _ , a position of high honor and responsibility, at  _eleven_ , alone.

_Eleven_ . Eleven, and already gone to pursue her fate, her dreams, her  _position_ as the youngest of the royal family. She will grow knowing how to talk to the Gods, singing for their fortune, leading the people with advice and health and well wishes. 

She will be the youngest seer in centuries.

Possibly, the youngest seer ever.

Takumi is thirteen, and the realization comes to him like the charge of a wild  _kinshi_ . It leaves him dizzy, hollow, afraid; it makes him fall to his knees the moment he is alone, and cry. He punches his pillow, rips his old toys and breaks his practice bows, and cries.

It takes three days for him to compose himself enough to face his family. Hinata keeps him updated of the happenings outside his rooms, brings him his meals and forces him to  _move_ when his own body refuses to. He takes him by the arm and drags him to the baths, helps him dress for going out even when he is staying inside, and cheers him on when Takumi practices a weak smile in front of the mirror.

He doesn’t know what he would do without Hinata.

Four days after Sakura leaves, Hinoka heads back to the watchtowers. Two days after that, Ryouma arms his troops and leaves for the border, for some live steel exercise he somehow conned Yukimura into agreeing with. By the end of the week, it is only Azura and Takumi at Mother’s side, a pair of small shadows following her steps and eavesdropping on meetings.

He misses Sakura.

Azura misses Sakura as well. Takumi has seen her looking sadly at the sakura trees, feeding the koi fish with Hana, and even flying with Subaki. She misses them all, but Sakura the most, and Takumi could use this chance to get closer to his adopted sister, but no. All he does is lock himself in the archery range and shoot arrow after arrow from morning to night.

He lists his arguments. He practices his speech. He talks to Oboro and Hinata and asks for their input. He mutters to himself until early morning and then disguises his eyebags with a careful layer of make up, the scratch marks on his arms with longer sleeves than usual, and the constant fatigue with the tea Oboro imports from the northern border.

When he thinks he is ready, he confronts Mother.

“You want to- Takumi, what?” She looks confused. She closes her scrolls and books, puts asides her brush, and kneels before Takumi so she will be closer to him.

He tightens his fingers around his knees. He is nervous. He is anxious. He shouldn’t have spoken up.

“I want to travel,” he finally says, after the silence stretches far from comfortable and deep into awkward. Mother is looking at him with soft eyes, and she takes his hand on her own and motions him to continue. He brings his arguments to mind, brings up his practice for this exact moment, and looks into her eyes as he tries to speak. 

His speech cuts short. He forgets. He stutters a start, takes a deep breath, and tries to continue. “Hinoka is training in intelligence and Sakura is gone into priesthood. Ryouma commands our troops until he is of age for the throne, and we know that will be soon. They are all doing something for the realm, all of them, except for me.”

“You are thirteen.”

“And when Ryouma was thirteen, he was already out in the field. I cannot support him from the castle, Mother. I cannot support them if I don’t know what to support them in.”

And she looks considering for a while, all as she says, “I will think about it.”

And the months pass.

 

Takumi doesn’t forget his request, but he doesn’t bring it up again. He focuses on his archery, on spars against Oboro and Hinata, on mediating between his retainers and other people. He tries to focus on his studies, but all he can do when he gets the library for himself is wonder about the world and how he would do out there.

(What is a world inside four walls, inside the palace, when all he can do is look through windows and await his fate?)

Life continues on and on, until Ryouma comes back, Hinoka and Sakura come back, and an entourage of Izumo diplomats drop on their lives along with the Archduke’s heir.

The banquet is terrible. He has to listen to the diplomats with a smile, tolerate the heir’s boasting with the patience of a saint, and even being around his siblings is tiring at the moment. He sees the Archduke occasionally, a dash of white and yellow amongst the colorful diplomats, and tries to ignore the heavy gaze of  _someone_ on him until late evening.

Finally, Mother summons him to her side, and he bows to the Archduke with all the respect he can bring himself to show.

“Archduke Izana.”

“My, Prince Takumi, it has been long.” The Archduke laughs, bows to him and twirls around to drag one of his companions to the front. “Here he is, Haruka.”

The lady he presents to him is beautiful. Not too young, but not too old, dressed in fine silks patterned in white and pink flowers. Her light brown hair falls in rare curls all over her shoulder and back, held away from her face with a delicate lacquer comb, and thin earrings dangle from her ears in a chain of pink stones. Curiously, she does not hide her wrists, or her ankles. Her sleeves are wide, but end midways through her forearm, and her robes flare open near her knees, revealing too much leg and uncomfortable tall  _geta_ .

The lady peers at him from behind her fan, then glances at Hinata and Oboro by his side. Whatever she sees, she appreciates, as she gives a small nod to the Archduke before she closes her fan with a sharp move of her wrist.

She is not wearing make up. Not a concubine, then, though he doesn’t know why anyone would introduce a concubine to him; he doesn’t even know if Archduke Izana is married, for all that he has a heir and has been at the throne for longer than Ryouma has been alive.

“Greetings, Prince Takumi.” Her voice is soft, though her accent makes it sound like she is not originally from either Hoshido or Izumo. She barely even bows to him. “My name is Haruka. I was a tutor to Lord Ahito until yesterday, and care for the Healers of Izumo Castle.”

Lord Ahito, Archduke Izana’s heir. When Takumi last met him five years ago, he was a disaster of a man, who could not keep his tone down or keep up with a conversation with Ryouma on a good day. He would flaunt, even more than today, and act like every being in the room had to look at him and only him.

Takumi looks at her. She looks at him, a vague smile in her lips. If this woman managed to reign down Ahito, then…

A hand falls on his shoulder, and he startles. It is Mother.

“Archduke Izana has graciously offered to host you for a few years,” she says, and everything starts making sense. “Lady Haruka has many stories to tell and many lessons to teach. Her companions, I believe, do so as well, and are willing to tell you of their travels and adventures. Who knows, maybe they can bring you along, too.”

Can he really say anything to that?

 

Everything happens far too quickly. Archduke Izana evades straight words as if it is a sport, and Lady Haruka stays in the shadows when she is not speaking; by the end of the Izumo entourage’s stay in Hoshido, no one in the castle knows where Takumi is going, or even that he is leaving. Mother and her retainers do everything in their hands to keep his trip a secret, and Yukimura’s only aid is through helping Hinata and Oboro do the same.

Takumi wonders how this will work out. By all laws, Izumo is a neutral nation, and them going as far as taking care of the second Prince of Hoshido might bring them trouble. He asks Oboro, who asks Lady Haruka, and soon the answer is clear.

He can’t say he likes it.

“We will not stay merely in Izumo,” Lady Haruka said. “My fellow Healer, Rive, and Archduke Izana’s guard Chika, often head to the borders and to other nations to offer aid. I, as well, do much the same. You and your Prince will be expected to show diplomacy and respect for the people of those other nations,  _including_ Nohr.”

Oboro protests. Takumi protests. Hinata doesn’t care much, but he protests for the fight’s sake. They wonder if it is possible to quit, but a few words with Mother stops them right away.

“If we ever desire pace, we will need diplomats,” she says, kneeling next to him with a cup of tea in her hands. “Ryouma and Azura know Nohrian, but your sisters do not, and even then, the manners of the Nohrian court are very different from Hoshido. If we achieve it, long distant dream peace may seem, you will be the most important player in negotiations, maybe for decades to come.”

He looks at his own cup and tries to see the future. He doubts. He has not known peace in all his life, and he always expected his words to be the second weapon after his bow. “Will we achieve it?”

“We will.” And she sounds sure of it. “Maybe not this year, maybe not this decade… But we will.”

_It has been_ _seen_ .

 

Finally, Archduke Izana’s sky carriage is ready to set flight from Hoshido, and Takumi finds himself sitting atop a great wyvern. His mother is but a dot in the distance, and his siblings are probably wondering where he is, but his trip to Izumo is to be kept a secret for at least the following week. He will set off later, after the main entourage is gone, from this cliff, with only Oboro as his companion.

Hinata will join them later but, somehow, he already feels lonely.

Orochi is with them, chatting with the gentle-faced woman -Chika- that is the wyvern’s rider. It is  _weird_ , for Wyverns to be anywhere near Hoshido, as they are native to the colder weathers of Nohr, but Chika doesn’t look Nohrian at all. In fact, she doesn’t look like  _anyone_ he has seen before.

Then again, he is rather sheltered. This, he understands.

“Oh, no,” Chika is saying, a giggle hidden behind her hand. “Minerva is so docile, she would not do anything to the Prince, would you, Minerva?” 

The wyvern lets out a soft growl, and lowers its head for pets. Chika scratches it -her- under the jaw, and Takumi joins in just because he can, and Wyverns are... cute, in their own way. The scales are rough and warm under his hand.

He takes a look at Oboro, holding the Fujin Yumi in her hand like it is a sword. Minerva had gotten nervous at the sight of it, so it will travel with Oboro on one of the  _Kinshi_ borrowed from Archduke Izana. Takumi had no idea Oboro could ride  _kinshi_ , but when asked, she had huffed and looked away so…

He hopes everything will go well.

 

The flight goes… okay, and by the end of the day they are landing near the border of Hoshido and Izumo, to rest in a tiny village on Izumo’s side. The Archduke makes questions, Chika tends to her wyvern and Haruka reigns down Heir Ahito’s nighttime hyperactivity. Oboro and Takumi sit side by side, napping on each other -long distance flying is more tiring than they expected.

By lunchtime the next day, they are at Izumo castle. Takumi gets his own room, smaller than the one back home, with two doors to Oboro’s and what would be Hinata’s own quarters. Lady Haruka‘s room is near, in the same corridor, and she tells him to be up early tomorrow for their first lesson before vanishing into the Healers’ wing.

Takumi doesn’t sleep much that night.

 

The following day, he joins Haruka for breakfast. She is wearing a wide, thick Nohrian-style skirt under loose kimono, and there is a pink parasol resting at her side, along with what could be a magic tome, except it is white (Takumi has never seen a white tome before). She is drinking some black beverage that smells too bitter, and eating small pastries with a fork.

"Prince Takumi.” She motions him to sit down, so he does. “As you know, I am Haruka, and I will be your main tutor through your time in Izumo. At the request of Archduke Izana, I shall teach you court etiquette, both Nohrian and V- Common. We will meet in this room for our midday meals, and we will discuss matters of cultural importance afterwards in tone for high court."

Takumi wants to frown, but his upbringing makes his face stay as impassive as always. He has questions, but he knows better than to simply ask them, especially to the one who would be his mentor. Instead, he nods his head, and tries to ignore her heavy gaze.

"You may ask questions, Prince Takumi. It is the very least I expect."

He asks.

Apparently, she is a noble from a nation in another continent, where she was a close friend, almost aide, to the Princess until said Princess’ wedding. She doesn’t talk too much about the other nation, preferring instead to go on about her life in Izumo, her duties, and her son; she had come here with three other companions about six years ago, and they had impressed Archduke Izana enough to become a permanent part of his court.

Haruka is not even her real name, she admits. Her name is apparently too foreign on Hoshidan tongue, so she adopted a new one so her real name would not be mispronounced.

She tells him about her husband, a man named Frederick, and about her skills as a Healer and Mage both. She can ride horses and pegasi, and has a mean punch reserved for people who bother her too much (“Heir Ahito got punched many a time. I hope you will not be the same”). She tells him about Ahito’s faults, all while teaching him how to properly use a fork and a knife to insult the chef, and tends to go into oddly demeaning rants about the men in her life.

Clearly, she has given up putting appearances for court’s sake. She says:

“Lying is the first skill of a diplomat. At times you will meet people you don’t like, and that is fine, but when out there you are the face of your country, your people. Even in the battlefield, manners can get you far -it makes the enemy confused, hence easy targets.”

Overall, it is a fun few hours, especially when Oboro joins them and they start snarking about each other’s fashion sense for the following too many minutes.

 

The second day, he is formally introduced to Chika, the Wyvern rider. She is a busty woman, dressed really modest until she takes off her outer layer to reveal armour that, curiously, leaves most of her back in plain sight. She wears her long, straight, dark pink hair loose, and has a small hair clip shaped like the wings of a wyvern.

Both Oboro and Takumi face her on melee together, three times, and three times they lose. Her skills with the axe are terrifying -she might even be stronger than Ryouma-, but she is constantly fixing their stances and giving suggestions to improve their skills and teamwork. All the while, Minerva naps under the shadows of a wall, and Takumi doesn’t want to know how monstrous their strength would be together.

Hinata would love her. Hinata  _does_ love her, eventually, when he gets there, and he gets beaten seven times sword against axe. He vows to win the next time, and Chika laughs and promises to do her best.

She doesn’t tell them much of herself. She mentions her children a few times, and improvises odes to Wyverns on the spot. She doesn’t like archers much, though she does respect them, and when Takumi is finally allowed to wield a bow against her she stays far, far away.

 

Next, he gets to meet Rive. Within a week of staying at Izumo, he gets called to the Healers’ wing, where he has to evade some bothersome ladies on his way to the shrine in the back. They keep wanting to see his hair, for some reason, so he has to go to the garden and make a detour through a flower maze before he is allowed to see the man.

Rive is a really  _feminine_ man, in looks. While he is tall and his clothes make him look huge, his face is fine, his features delicate, and his hair is prettier than Takumi’s own. He looks a little like Izana although, unlike the Archduke, his age of thirty-something shows on his face.

Takumi doesn’t know what exactly Rive is teaching him, but they get to fly to a mountain town where he and Oboro help with health check ups. The man is a priest, but he doesn’t tell what Deity he follows, and instead of preaching about religion he teaches people how to care for so-and-so illness, how to defend themselves from danger, and also about the current state of the war tension.

Oboro somehow manages to get on the good side of the people, and they teach her about natural medicines and edible plants in the area. Takumi feels like he grew up, a small bit, from interacting with the people, and by the end of their two days-long trip around the mountains, he feels a little better with himself.

“Did Heir Ahito go on these trips as well?” He asks a month later, when Rive is not just a face in the crowd but rather a comfortable presence.

“No. But Lord Ahito had no desire or time to travel, or to see the world, as his future had been decided already.”

Rive gives him a small smile, and Takumi feels something tighten in his chest, like pride and guilt settling on his heart.

 

It doesn’t last.

Four months after he first arrived Izumo, he and his retainers fly back to Hoshido. He brings some tea for Mother and Ryouma, candy for Sakura, a pretty lacquer box for Hinoka and a glassy crane for Azura. Hinata has his face glued to the sky carriage’s window, being the first time he has traveled in one, while Oboro goes through a Nohrian history book (she hates it, but refuses to let Takumi go through his classes alone).

When they land, it is to Mother’s gentle smiles, Ryouma’s stoic questions and Hinoka’s frantic worrying. Azura and Sakura look at them from behind Yukimura, but upon realizing nothing will happen with Chika’s wyvern, they run to him for greetings.

His sisters hadn’t been told where he was, just that he was staying elsewhere for a few months. The official version is that he is ‘meditating’ at the island temple where the Fujin Yumi usually rests, while the gossip says he  _finally realized he doesn’t belong_ .

He glares at Azama. Oboro glares at Azama. Hinata doesn’t care much outwardly, though he and Chika loudly plan to give him to Minerva to play. Hinoka finally shoos him away, bright red and apologizing for her retainer (but why).

“He is always saying sh- I don’t get where he hears these kind of things, really, I’m so sorry, Takumi-”

Takumi just shakes his head. He is used to the court gossip about him, about his hair ( _ silver, like  _ that _ man, do you think- _ ) and his inability to use the Fujin Yumi ( _ why did it chose him, if it will not work _ ), about his retainers ( _ the boy is fine, but have you  _ seen _  that girl he’s got, honestly- _ ). It doesn’t mean he likes it, just that he has to be careful.

Words hurt worse than swords, after all.

 

He spends the week with his family and, when they are getting ready to head back, Mother stops him.

“The priests have been asking,” she starts, throwing a wary glance around even as Yukimura and Orochi interfere with his siblings. “Have you managed to awaken the Fujin Yumi?”

He looks at her and then, without a word, shuts the carriage’s door closed.

 

_Everyone_ notices his mood. 

Haruka gives him a free day, and then comes back with some sweet pastries she made herself with a recipe from her homeland. Chika doesn’t even try to beat him for the following week, and Rive serves him some tea and makes no comment about it. He sits by the Healers’ library, idly flipping through the medical records of the past few months, only half listening to Hinata’s cheerful chatter as he rearranges the shelves.

Archduke Izana summons him before dinner.

“You are trying too hard,” he says once he manages to get the story out of Takumi. They are outside by the fish pond, sharing a bottle of a barely alcoholic apple beverage. The Archduke motions widely with his hands, and it is a wonder he hasn’t spilled his drink yet. “You have to let the spirits come to you, not call them by force. They are curious creatures, they  _ will _ help you if they think you are trustworthy.”

“How do  _ you _ know, anyways? It is a Hoshidan relic.”

“Well,” Izana looks at him straight in the eye and Takumi can see how  _ ancient _ he is. There is something about him, a heavy aura that claims respect and draws all the eyes to him, and for the first time he thinks Izumo’s whole idea of being funded by the Gods is  _ real _ . “My ancestor was there, when it was created. It, and the other royal relics as well. 

“There is some scrolls about it that I had to read before ascending.” The man finishes his drink and stands, heading back indoors. Takumi dutifully follows. “I keep them in the treasury, but I do have some notes I took, somewhere around here. I will lend them to you so you may learn to wield the spirits.”

The  _ notes  _ are in a subtle wooden chest, covered in a mantle. From its placement, Takumi can tell it has been used as a tea table and probably desk as well, and he really wonders about this man’s sanity. The chest opens with some whispered words and glowing runes, revealing a collection of papers, bottles and small decorative charms, all of them in their respective compartments.

That night, Takumi goes to his room with a huge pile of texts to read. Yet, as he puts them down on his own desk, he can’t help but smile.

Finally, he will progress.

 

The last of the court ‘tutors’ he meets is not even half as impressive as the other three the moment he meets him. After his dueling lessons, Chika-san tells him his final tutor had finally returned, and to meet him at the library.

Takumi goes.

Now, the library in Izumo is maybe the size of the castle itself. It is a grand building of six stores, two above ground, four below, with spiraling staircases and towers of scrolls, countless of people roaming its halls with faces that tell they don’t go out much. None of them stop to pay attention to him, so Takumi asks one of the guards outside to lead him to his tutor.

He finds the man in the lowest floor, the guard that brought him here bowing before he leaves. The ‘tutor’, a man in heavy black and purple clothes, sits atop a table, piles of books and scrolls, pots of ink and various feathers and brushes around him. He is scribbling something on a Nohrian bound notebook, frantic, while an unbound scroll floats before his eyes.

The man looks up with a slow blink, and smiles. 

“Ah. Prince Takumi, I have been waiting.”

He doesn't look like much at first glance. He is messy, with unkept hair and bags under his eyes, clothes tied up wrongly and spots of ink in the most confusing places. His voice is tired and slow, with a rough accent that leaves Takumi wondering where he comes from. He is  _ clearly _ not Nohrian, or Hoshidan, or even from the mystery land that Haruka comes from; with dark skin, hair lighter than Izana’s own, and hooded purple eyes, he looks like he stepped out from under the desert sun.

He doesn’t look like much at first glance, but Takumi soon discovers he is way more than the others he has met around.

His name is Shiori, the archduke's personal advisor, brother by choice and, if rumors can be believed, occasional bed mate. He is the head commander of the defense army, head strategist, economist and who knows what else, the man that whispers to Izana at meetings and who deals with the most troublesome of allies.

He is like Yukimura, or like what he has heard Mother had been to King Sumeragi before Queen Ikona’s death, except  _ more _ . This man practically  _ runs _ the kingdom behind closed doors, enough presence that people recognize him in sight yet not enough that people outside the castle would know what he does.

And Takumi is meant to learn from him.

 

He had seen Shiori before; very few times, but he had. The man wanders the halls at night, checking wards and guard posts, and at times he appears by Izana’s side at dinner, but Takumi had never known what he did. Haruka is the Head Healer, with Rive closely following her, while Chika had earned her status as a personal guard, first to Lord Izana, then to Takumi; they are important, yes, but not so important as to be missed the few hours a day they spend with him.

Shiori is different. Shiori’s duties involve him moving around constantly, keeping track of everything that goes on inside the castle: no one enters, no one leaves, without him knowing. He is  _ always _ working, always looking for more knowledge, always going through likely and unlikely scenarios in his mind. 

He seems to be the first to wake up and the last to sleep, but Takumi knows that is not so. More than once, his morning routine when he has  _ lessons _ with Shiori involve waking him up and dragging him wherever he has to be -or, Oboro and Hinata wake him up, while Takumi tries to find the schedule for the day he knows is somewhere in the room.

The most interesting part of the whole arrangement are the lessons. Shiori teaches him about whatever he is doing at the moment. If he is watching the trainees, he tells Takumi about the many ways some weapons are stronger than others, including some he he has never heard about (what is a Light tome?). If he is doing inventory, he learns about economy and the situation of the tension war, and why being well stocked is good even for a peaceful nation. When he is meeting people, Takumi is allowed to hide somewhere and listen in, unless it is something classified, and later ask questions about whatever was talked about. It is really fun.

The downside is that Shiori-lessons are for his ears only, and that they usually end whenever Shiori is done for the day, which often is when the night has long settled in and no one else is awake. He has to go through whole days without Oboro or Hinata, at times even skipping meals (because Shiori has terrible habits) and his daily lesson with Haruka. There are days when he follows after Shiori as a sort-of-assistant under an illusion, and doesn’t meet anyone else he knows, but it is all good when he gets to hear things people usually don’t say before Princes.

It is like that how he learns why the high court of Hoshido side-eyes him so much: apparently, the light hair he has doesn’t usually appear in the royal line of Hoshido, as it is a trait of Izumo. It  _ can  _ appear, since both kingdoms’ royal families had been related once, but it is rare and commonly a sign of unhealthy children. Takumi’s long gone uncle had been the last, a half brother to King Sumeragi who had passed before he turned ten years old.

He doesn’t know what to say to that, so he doesn’t say anything.

 

By the second year of his stay in Izumo, he feels almost good with himself. Whenever he goes back home, the progress he makes on his self esteem regresses, but he doesn’t feel like a complete waste of space anymore. Just… half a waste, like an archer without a bow would feel.

He still can’t use the Fujin Yumi. It took him maybe half a year of trying after his first talk with Izana, but he did give in and ask for help in the end. Between his retainers, his tutors and Izana himself, they had figured out a possible reason for his inability to use the royal relic: the spirits refused to go near him.

He isn’t even good enough for the spirits. Why did the Fujin Yumi chose him?

He had loudly worried about it for a while, until Shiori heard him one day. The man had taken a few hours out of his busy schedule to fling books at him while lecturing.

“The reason why the spirits will not approach is because they worry,” he said.  The eye-like sigils on his robe seemed to glow whenever the wind picked up around them so it could throw more books at Takumi. “They care so much about you they will not dare to hurt you, unwillingly or not.”

“That makes no sense!” Takumi blocks. The Fujin Yumi was the only weapon he was allowed to keep, and whenever the wind picked up he could  _ feel _ a panicked sort of indecision all around them.

“The Fujin Yumi links you to the spirits in such a way you pull yourself to their level. One wrong move and you might stay there, and they don’t  _ want _ that.” Even indoors, there was a wild sort of static around them. Lightning danced in Shiori’s fingers, dangerous yet still oddly reluctant. “You, who are sensitive to them. You, who could easily give yourself to them without knowing. You, who are  _ wide open _ .”

And it was maybe a second before the lightning hit, that Takumi saw them. The spirits gathering around his bow, shaping an arrow in his hand: small, bright spots in his sight swarming around him like moths to the fire, so many they are blinding. The spirits around Shiori’s hand, leading the lightning to its target, looking like ragged cuts in reality, a shape of black wings wrapped around the man as a cloak.

It was one second, but it made him realize what he had been missing. And also  _ why _ he had been missing it.  The Fujin Yumi is a  _ magical _ weapon, a royal relic that borrows the power of the spirits to pierce through the darkness; the spirits, who apparently love him and will crowd around waiting to be of use. However, Takumi has no talent in magic, no natural or crafted barriers to protect himself or his mind from the backlash of the bow, no knowledge on how to limit how much power he draws in. 

And so, when the arrow forms in his hands, the spirits crowd. They push power on his hands until it overflows, and yet keep pushing. The power burns, the memories and feelings they carry around melt with his own, the sheer presence of  _ something _ weighing on his head until it gives up.

All in one second, before the lightning hits.

(The next day he woke up on the healer’s wing, completely healed. Haruka was leaning over him, the staff usually hiding in her umbrella in her hand.

“Fighting a mage with no magical barriers was not a good decision, dear. I know why Shiori did it, but I do not agree.” 

He can’t say he agrees either. There is a root-like imprint on his arms, from his shoulders to the end of his fingers, and he doesn’t like it at all.

He feels  _ weak _ .)

 

From that day on, his studies turn towards magic and, eventually, towards using the Fujin Yumi without burning away his mind. He doesn’t get to use magic at all -even the most volatile of tomes refuses to work in his hands-, but by the end he can craft a weak barrier around himself, can anchor his mind on a charm Shiori, Haruka and Rive made for him, can pull the spirits around himself in a way he feels  _ safe _ .

And so it is, for the next few years: days of peaceful studying, self-learning and growth that he would not give away for anything.

 

That is, until Mother calls him back with a warning to prepare for war.

Oh, how times have changed.

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: If I do continue this, I will explain later, but for now: the Ylisse the people from Awakening come from is one where Chrom lands the final blow. This means, Grima is very much alive, and Robin is influenced by it. Also, there is some background politics between Ylisse and Valla (since Valla is technically an outrealm). 
> 
> ALSO Lucina and the Morgans are here as well but we will see them if there is another chapter.
> 
> ALSO this started as an idea for Robkumi/Takurob, so if I do continue there is a chance it will hint towards it. For now Takumi just Really Admires Robin and is also constantly stressed by his terrible habits.


End file.
